Friday, 27 June 2014

A second-hand tyre salesman

Someone who clearly knows a
thing or two about the mysterious Gill tyre business posted a comment on an earlier piece about Nathan Gill, the recently elected Ukip MEP, to
say that the tyres were all legally disposed of. While it is accepted
that that was the case, Anon's comments overlook several important
points:

1. It was the Environment Agency Wales which took
out an enforcement order to have the tyres legally disposed of. Disposal was supervised by both the EAW and the county council. It was not exactly
done voluntarily. An interesting FOI would be how much this cost the EAW and the council.

2. How many houses in built-up areas have 5,000 tyres in their back gardens?

3.
Nathan Gill was in business with the occupants of this house just a
few miles from his own home, and one of the occupants was his
mother. The property itself is a large Victorian house run as a B&B. The
website has a great many pictures of the house and surroundings, all
copyright of Nathan Gill, so either way it is reasonable to assume that our MEP was a frequent visitor. Did he ever wonder what all those tyres were doing there?

4.
North Wales police raided a second property in conjunction with the
illegal tyre stash a few miles away in Llangefni where Nathan Gill lives. Perhaps that
was just a coincidence. Perhaps Anon would like to tell us more?

Not only were the tyres being stored illegally, but it is clear from news reports at the time (Daily Post and BBC, October 2011) that the authorities had reason to believe this was part of a scam to ship used and worn tyres to Ghana where they would presumably have been sold and re-used.

The most obvious source of clarification on this sub-story (the main story relates to the wholesale importing of workers from overseas) is Nathan Gill himself, but he remains stubbornly silent on the matter.